The Romanesque church in Aignan
View of Aignan, looking towards Pyrenees obscured by haze
Yesterday the afternoon got sunny after a rainy morning so after I cleaned up from weeding and painting some new shutters I walked into town and then through town to the communal forest and the little lake hiding way back in its depths. The lake is man-made and there’s also a small man-made sandy beach with some water slides. A boy was fishing from the bank and had some small successes in the short time that I was there. Because of the recent rain the air feels humid and the ground smells ripe, the woods were thick and overgrown. One farm I walked by had fresh haybales at the edge of the field, smelling warm and sweet. The neatest thing I saw was the old lavoir, a kind of communal clothes washing fountain, just outside town. There was a pond above it full of water lilies, its water dripping through a crack in the wall into the lavoir itself which is now slimy with algae. The benches on two sides of the square pool were still intact and the tiled roof supported by very old handhewn beams is also still intact. We mentioned it to an Englishwoman last night who was visiting - former area residents who have moved back to London - and she thought it would have been so fun to go and do the washing with all the other women… and Karina noted with some irony how much “fun” it would be to haul all your laundry down the hill and then back up it again, wet and heavy.
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